JCRC Luncheon 2025

Join the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) as we honor Matt Most with the Community Leadership Award and Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet with the Legislative Leadership Award in recognition of their contributions to the community and advocacy for positive change.

Matt Most | Community Leadership Award Recipient
Matt Most is a co-founder of the SHEFA Innovation Foundry and the co-chair of the Council for a Secure America. Prior to these roles, Matt has had a 35-year career in energy and environmental commodities including Vice President of Government Relations at Ovintiv (formerly Encana Oil & Gas), Senior Energy Trader at Edison Mission Energy, and Commodities Center Director at Waste Management, Inc. Matt has been involved with the JCRC since 2015, serving as chair from 2022-2024 and its interim director for much of 2024. Under his leadership, the JCRC helped secure nearly $2 million in nonprofit security grants for Colorado organizations and defeat numerous anti-Israel resolutions and bills. His extensive board service includes positions with the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States, the Children’s Museum of Denver, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, JEWISHcolorado and many others.

The Honorable Dafna Michaelson Jenet | Legislative Leadership Award Recipient
Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives for seven years before moving on to the Senate, where she was recently elected President pro-tempore. Her legislative work primarily focuses on youth, particularly foster youth, mental health, and healthcare access. Further areas of advocacy include her lifelong efforts to increase education surrounding the Holocaust and genocide. In 2020, Senator Michaelson Jenet successfully created and passed a historic bill mandating inclusion of Holocaust and Genocide education in high school curricula in the state of Colorado. Prior to this, she served as the Director of the Holocaust Awareness Institute of the University of Denver as well as the Director of March of the Living for the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York. In addition, the Senator was president of the Denver chapter of Hadassah; she served on the Desert-Mountain Region Board and in the National Portfolio Council of this organization.